Advertising demystified
“Advertising is, at its core, just the simple delivery of information.”
So says Chris Berg, research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs and editor of the IPA Review.
One can only agree that the most lavish promotion for any given product is ultimately reducible to a statement of the application of the product, technical specifications, and so forth.
In short, well-paid advertising hot-shots are not creative geniuses, but rather simple information workers.
With Mr Berg’s searing demystification of their craft, they may now expect a concomitant reduction in their remuneration. If I were in the advertising industry, I’d be joining the union with all haste.
posted by Jacob A. Stam at 3/24/2008 11:40:00 AM
2 Comments:
I'm a big fan of salads, but would never be predisposed to buying one from McDonald's, for the simple reason that if anyone can make a salad with no taste and no texture, it would be McDonald's.
Here's the thing with advertising though: organisations (commercial and political) spend ever increasing amounts on it, and are increasingly challenged into finding *inventive* (read: even more annoying) ways to intercept their target demographic, the latter of which they frequently declare to be "successful". So, someone out there persists in the belief that advertising "works", including political advertising, which was long ago proven to merely reinforce existing intentions, not change them.
Advertising and marketing - for the two go hand in hand - is a just a profit making industry, no different to any other, with the twist that they have to constantly contrive to justify their existence, their costs and their value to both client and target audience.
Hmmm. Bit like the advertising outside of the aggrandising suburb that Centro Bankstown is becoming....despite the complete lack of continency in the company's funding.
Huge advert for the opening of the new "Centro Medical Centre" complete with white Anglo-Saxon male (and half five o'clock shadow al la House) bulk-billing large.
Not much point in showing the Indian, Chinese and Pakistani doctors who will be paid an absolute minimum to man it. Not to say they are not decent professionals; just that the blatant "ethnic" misrepresentation is astounding.
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